GitHub Actions and GitLab CI are the two dominant CI/CD platforms in 2026. If your code is already on one platform, the answer is usually obvious. But for new projects — or migrations — the choice matters.
Here's what I've learned running both in production.
GitHub Actions: Strengths
Ecosystem is unmatched. The GitHub Marketplace has thousands of pre-built actions for everything from deploying to AWS to sending Slack notifications. Most open-source projects use GitHub Actions, so finding examples is easy.
Self-hosted runners are simple to set up. Add a runner to your server in 10 minutes. This is how I deploy this website — a macOS runner on my own machine handles all deployments for free.
Tight GitHub integration. Branch protection rules, required status checks, environment protection rules, and deployment history are all first-class features.
on:
push:
branches: [main]
jobs:
deploy:
runs-on: self-hosted
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4 - run: ./deploy.sh
GitLab CI: Strengths
All-in-one platform. GitLab includes built-in container registry, package registry, security scanning, dependency scanning, and infrastructure management. With GitHub you need to integrate these separately.
Better for private infrastructure. GitLab's self-hosted option (GitLab CE/EE) gives you full control — useful for enterprises with strict compliance requirements.
Pipeline visualization is superior. GitLab's pipeline UI shows stages, job dependencies, and artifacts more clearly than GitHub Actions' linear view.
stages:
- test
- build
- deploy
deploy:
stage: deploy
script:
- rsync -av . user@server:/app only:
- main
The Honest Comparison
| Feature | GitHub Actions | GitLab CI |
|---|---|---|
| Free minutes (public repos) | Unlimited | 400/month |
| Free minutes (private repos) | 2,000/month | 400/month |
| Marketplace/integrations | Excellent | Good |
| Self-hosted | Good | Excellent |
| Built-in security scanning | Basic (paid) | Included |
| Pipeline UI | Good | Excellent |
My Recommendation
Choose GitHub Actions if: your team lives in GitHub, you work with open-source, or you want the largest ecosystem of ready-made integrations.
Choose GitLab CI if: you need a self-hosted all-in-one platform, work in an enterprise with compliance requirements, or value built-in security scanning.
For most small-to-medium teams in 2026: GitHub Actions wins on convenience. For enterprises needing full control: GitLab CI wins on completeness.
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